Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 32.djvu/110

vants, women benefit most by the attention of good ones; and I have no doubt that there are in England women enough—generous, warm-hearted, thoughtful women—to found such an institution; women enough, from the very highest lady in the land, down to the poorest mother of a family, waited on by a nameless little maid-of-all-work from St. Luke's, to stretch out a helping hand to their sisters in service, and give them what every woman has a right to, the means of improving their social standing.

One word more: Kitchen College must be no charity. To make it a success, it must be as much a national institution as the University of Oxford; its degrees, certificates, and prizes must be worked for, fought for, and won, by the most deserving, not as an "imperfect favor, but a perfect right."—Nineteenth Century.

UNDER geographical variation many interesting facts have been added since Professor Baird, Dr. Allen, and Mr. Ridgway published their capital discoveries calling attention to the variations observed in birds and mammals coincident with their latitudinal range. William Bartram, grand-nephew of the famous botanist John Bartram, alludes to the effect of climate in modifying species. In speaking of birds he says, "The different soil and situation of the country may have contributed in some measure in forming and establishing the difference in size and qualities betwixt them."

Dr. J. A. Allen[2] shows marked geographical variation among North American mammals in respect to size. He shows that—"1. The maximum physical development of the individual is attained when the conditions of environment are most favorable to the life of the species. 2. The largest species of a group (genus, sub-family, or family, as the case may be) are found when the group to which they severally belong reaches its highest development, or when it has what may be termed its center of distribution. 3. The most typical or most generalized representatives of a group are found also near the center of distribution, outlying forms being generally more or less aberrant or specialized." In the study of the eggs of birds of the same species. North and South, Dr. Allen shows that in the South the

↑Address of the retiring President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, delivered at the New York meeting, August 10, 1887.

↑"Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories."